Spartan Superway Update (4/25)

Last week, I helped the Small Scale Solar Team out by helping them clean/prep their solar panels. Before we went to clean the panels, we first took them outside to test them to see if they worked. We tested three panels which gave us 30V each. After that, we took them inside and started to prep them for cleaning. The solar panels had some thick adhesive on the back so we had to use some Goo Gone to get rid of it. We let the Goo Gone soak into the adhesive before we started scrapping it off. The adhesive was a lot stronger than we thought so it took a long time to clean up three panels. After that, the panels were nice and clean and ready to use. The solar panels have grease on them which is very hard to get off your hands.

Spartan Superway Update (4/18)

Since the semester began, my team and I have been working on the small scale track. We had faced many challenges throughout the fabrication of the track. The first challenge was that the welder in the SSDC doesn't output enough current and doesn't weld in AC mode. AC mode is required to weld Aluminum. In order to weld the material, I contacted Professor Muntz in the IS building and ask him if we could weld there. Professor Muntz welcomed us into his shop but the  only downside was that we could only work there on Mondays and Fridays for only three hours.

Over the past two months, I have been welding the sections of the track which proved to be very difficult because of the nature of aluminum. Aluminum takes a lot of current and heat in order for it to melt. I burned myself multiple times too because aluminum doesn't change colors when it has been welded like other material.

Thankfully all the sections of track have been welded and now my teammates are going to connect the sections together with screws. I have been helping the Small Scale Solar team with their project because they needed help welding some material. I will also help other teams if they need my help.